Dell laptop LCD light leakage issue?

Teak

Interested to know if any other recent Dell laptop owners are experiencing any LCD screen light leakage. Some forums seems to suggest it's quite a common manufacturing fault with Dell and even replacement screens still have it to a varying degree. Supposedly the Samsung LCD screens used on the newer Inspiron 6000s are very prone to light leakage, although can sometimes effect the more expensive laptops too.

In daylight or most desktop applications it's not really noticable. But if you try in a darkened room with a blackground (screensaver, DVD, etc), it can be. Here are some photos of my Inspiron 6000's 15.4" WXGA:







Actually the photos don't recreate the light leak 100% accurately. It seems to take up slightly more of the screen in real life. Maybe as the rest is more of a gradual defused light that the camera didn't pick up. Turning the brightness down helps and also tilting the screen back past optimal viewing angle. But viewability is reduced.

Teak

Looks as if it can effect Dell standalone LCD monitors too. Although to be fair I think other laptop brands can also suffer from it to a varying degree. Maybe like dead pixels, backlight leakage is a known issue with LCD screens and manufacturers only consider it a problem if it's excessive?

CrazyChemist_2

Yeah I seem to have it too but only on a black screen, but it's ok if it's viewed dead straight (i.e. not from up or down angle).

Never noticed this before - I'll check on some laptops at work for you and let you know what I find.

CrazyChemist_2

Hi again, I pulled the blinds down and ran dead pixel buddy on a couple of laptops here (nobody using them as it's the weekend ) and there does appear to be that "leakage" of light from top and bottom depending on which angle it's looked at. Maybe it's just a flaw of LCD screens??

Hope this helps!

CC :beer

raymond

I listed it as a distinct disadvantage of LCD vs Plasma in a post the other day.

Teak

CC, do you think yours is as bad as my screen?

From reading other forums I think some backlight leakage is the norm with cheaper screens. But others have said they have no leakage or very minimal. Not sure how much is acceptable (if at all) and feel mine is a bit excessive. Waiting on a reply from Dell about it.

CrazyChemist_2

Teak wrote:

CC, do you think yours is as bad as my screen?

From reading other forums I think some backlight leakage is the norm with cheaper screens. But others have said they have no leakage or very minimal. Not sure how much is acceptable (if at all) and feel mine is a bit excessive. Waiting on a reply from Dell about it.

Hmmmm, it isn't as bad as it looks in that picture, but it was pretty bad when looked at from above/below a straight angle. Were you pointing at the screen on the same level when you took the pic?

Teak

It can look worse or better at different angles, but I had screen at my normal viewing angle (slightly titled back past 90) and straight on, where the text at the top and bottom seem most clear.

If I tilt it back more it does reduce the leak at the bottom, but the text at the top becomes less clear and dimmer. Tilt it forward or look from above and the leak fills the whole screen and text is less clear. Assume because of going past the optimal viewing angle of the screen.

Teak

I think Dell are stonewalling me on this issue and over email at least don't seem interestng in dealing with it. A phone call probably will speed things up, but why should I have to pay the extra cost for a Dell fault.

I'm confident it's a problem with the screen, after seeing a photo a Dell 8600 screen with zero blacklight leak visible. Maybe it is a manufacturing defect common on cheaper LCD screens, but feel mine is too excessive and noticable during DVD playback to be acceptable. Afterall, excessive dead pixels is considered a fault.

Brodel

some is acceptable and almost unavoidable to a certain extent, but I think that is too much and should be replaced. good luck with it.

SiMaster

Whats dead pixel buddy? what does it do - i have one dead pixel and it annoys me.

cheers